Elevation change of the Antarctic ice sheet, 1995-2000, from ERS-2 satellite radar altimetry

We analyzed Antarctic ice-sheet elevation change (dH/dt) from 1995 to 2000 using 123 million elevation change measurements from European Remote Sensing 2 ice-mode satellite radar altimeter data covering an area of about 7.2 million km/sup 2/. Almost all drainage basins in east Antarctica had average...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on geoscience and remote sensing 2004-11, Vol.42 (11), p.2437-2445
Main Authors: Davis, C.H., Ferguson, A.C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Altimetry
Antarctica
Applied geophysics
Area measurement
Earth sciences
Earth, ocean, space
Elevation change
Exact sciences and technology
Ice
Internal geophysics
Marine and continental quaternary
polar ice sheets
Radar measurements
Radar remote sensing
Remote sensing
satellite radar altimetry
Satellites
Sea measurements
Spaceborne radar
Surficial geology
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Summary:We analyzed Antarctic ice-sheet elevation change (dH/dt) from 1995 to 2000 using 123 million elevation change measurements from European Remote Sensing 2 ice-mode satellite radar altimeter data covering an area of about 7.2 million km/sup 2/. Almost all drainage basins in east Antarctica had average dH/dt values within /spl plusmn/3.0 cm/year, whereas drainage basins in west Antarctica had substantial spatial variability with average dH/dt values ranging between -11 to +12 cm/year. The east Antarctic ice sheet had a five-year trend of 1/spl plusmn/0.6 cm/year, where 13 out of the 14 basins had either a positive trend or a trend that was not significantly different than zero. The west Antarctic ice sheet had a five-year trend of -3.6/spl plusmn/1.0 cm/year due largely to strong negative trends of around 10 cm/year for basins in Marie Byrd Land along the Pacific sector of the Antarctic coast. The continent as a whole had a five-year dH/dt trend of 0.4/spl plusmn/0.4 cm/year. Finally, time series constructed for the Pine Island, Thwaites, De Vicq, and Land glaciers in west Antarctic showed five-year dH/dt trends from -26 to -135 cm/year that were significantly more negative than the average dH/dt trends in their respective basins. The strongly negative dH/dt values for these coastal glacier outlets are consistent with recently reported results indicating increased basal melting at these glaciers' grounding lines caused by ocean thermal forcing.
ISSN:0196-2892
1558-0644
DOI:10.1109/TGRS.2004.836789